It's a golden Monday evening in Central Park in Old Louisville. I'm helping a woman in a flowing white dress climb onto the gazebo (a former wishing well) for photos. Suddenly, she's radiant. It's more than the setting sun lighting her face; I turn to see what ignited the blissful smile — and there's her groom.

When Shane from Louisiana booked our third floor Airbnb, Vertigo, I didn't know he was on a mission. He and his fiancee, Rachel, were bringing their dog, Millie, to explore Louisville, maybe do some hiking, he said. I sent him my for-guests-only list of favorite places in town and went about my business.

Then, an email a few days later from Rachel: “This will actually be our honeymoon trip,” it read. “I wanted to message you and maybe see if you have any ideas of how to go about our elopement.”

She wanted a place to say a “quick 'I do'” and ideas for where to take photos on a tripod with a borrowed camera, she went on. They wanted things to be special, even though they'd be simple.

Honeymoon! Elopement!? No pressure there. But I do like a challenge.

Fortunately I knew just the person to conduct the ceremony. Our neighbor Jon Huffman — a talented actor with Kentucky Shakespeare and all around amazing human being — had gone online some time ago to get the power vested in him to officiate weddings. Happily, he was available the Monday of their stay (the day the courthouse was open so they could get their marriage license).

They'd need two witnesses; easy — my husband and me. And I couldn't in good conscience let them just use a tripod when I love taking photos.

The weeks leading to their stay were a flurry of emails as I suggested options for the service and photo opportunities and sent ideas for their stay (we'd just hiked in the Parklands ourselves recently so were excited to share that discovery).

We hung out in our courtyard the evening they arrived and as our dogs got to know each other, we learned about their family and lives in Louisiana. It was the kind of rare comfortable evening in Louisville where you can pretend summer living here is easy, and it didn't seem odd for a second that we were talking with complete strangers who'd be sleeping under our roof and getting married in a couple days.

It felt like any encounter while you're traveling, only we didn't have to leave home.

Come the big day I met with the couple to work on signs, obviously a necessary element of any wedding photo. Only their immediate families knew they were engaged, and the elopement was a secret so we needed something clever to announce it with. Using the letter-board I use in my Airbnb to leave welcome signs for guests, we settled on We do / We did / Just eloped! / June 4 2018 / Louisville.

But aha! I remembered another colorful letter board on hand.

“You should say 'Guess what' on that one and post pictures of it from around the neighborhood!” I suggested. Game on. They kept friends and family on Facebook guessing all afternoon.

Finally, it arrived.

If you've been inside one of these Old Louisville beauties, you know these staircases from another era were made for making an entrance. When the bride floated down the stairs that evening, my eyes filled with tears.

Yes, I'm hokey like that.

The service at the pergola in the park was brief. Jon read the most hauntingly beautiful sonnet, #17 by Pablo Neruda, and said a few words as the couple beamed. My husband and I snapped away paparazzi-style while they slipped rings on each others' fingers, said 'I do,' and shared a kiss under the June-blue sky and wreaths of greenery.

Then things got really fun as we bopped around finding photo locations — a dance on the Shakespeare stage (music courtesy a phone and Spotify), chasing each other around the gnarliest old tree in the park, and of course, at the fountain in St. James Court.

Too soon they had to make their getaway for dinner downtown, and a couple days later they headed for home. As I write, I await our next guests and their adventures.

We don't get to travel like we used to; a house like this and running an Airbnb comes at a cost of time and responsibility. Maybe we could rent our third floor apartment full time and not earn that much less money. Certainly it would be a lot less work and time. But this house carries 128 years of stories in its bones, and part of my role as its current caretaker is to offer it more.

I get to feed my own wanderlust by creating a space for travelers to make their own stories. And when I'm lucky, like on that golden Monday night, our stories weave together for a little while.

Dana McMahan is a freelance food and travel writer and an Airbnb superhost and coach. Send her your burning Airbnb questions at sheeats.shewrites@gmail.com and follow her at www.instagram.com/vertigolouisville or soyouwannabeanairbnbsuperhost.com.

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Dana McMahan started as a novice renter but now is an Airbnb superhost in Old Louisville. How did she do it? She'll tell you the ins and outs.
Shannon Hall/Louisville Courier Journal